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The November 26 (and last 2013 ) farm share from Glade Road Growing is expected to include Hubbard winter squash, spinach, baby arugula, carrots, purple top turnips, other roots medley. Here's a recipe for arugula and/or spinach and ricotta calzones. You can adapt this recipe for calzones (or pizza) with any combination of cooked veggies you enjoy. Vegan can substitute my recipe for vegan sour cream for the cheese and eggs in the filling.
You can you can make this recipe with 1 pound of commercial frozen pizza dough defrosted (or if you want to be really decadent use puff pastry) and a bottled marinara sauce for dipping.
Or, if you want to make this recipe from scratch, I've included at the bottom my recipe for a dipping sauce and dough. You'll want to make the sauce night before and refrigerate to let the flavors combine. The night before you'll also want to start the dough and then remove it from the refrigerator and let rise for two hours.
I use whole wheat flour made from white rather than the more common red wheat. It has the nutrition found in other whole wheat flours because it includes the bran, germ and endosperm. Since it has a milder taste and sufficient gluten, it doesn't have to be mixed with all-purpose flour. I have a killer blender, so I make my own flour from the white wheat berries, but you can buy it in flour form.
Serves 4
Prepare the already-made dough and oven:
Quarter dough, form into balls and roll out each into an 8-inch round using a rolling pin. Put your oven rack in the lower third of the oven and preheat to 450 degrees and then make filling:
Filling:
Smash, peel and mince. 1 large or 2 small cloves fresh garlic.
Measure out 8 cups of baby arugula and or spinach. Rinse greens and pat dry. Depending on what's in season this will also work with broccoli or kale.
Saute garlic in a cast iron skillet lightly greased with extra virgin olive oil until golden. Add greens and cook, stirring frequently, until wilted, 2 to 3 minutes. Transfer to a sieve and press hard on greens to squeeze out as much excess liquid as possible, then coarsely chop.
Coarsely grate 3 oz whole-milk mozzarella
Finely grate 2 tablespoons Parmigiano-Reggiano
Stir together until blended with:
6 oz whole-milk ricotta (2/3 cup)
1 large egg yolk
1/4 teaspoon salt
1/8 teaspoon black pepper
Stir in greens.
Put one fourth of filling (about 1/3 cup) in center of 1 round and fold dough in half to enclose filling and form a semicircle. Press edges together to seal. Beginning at 1 end and working toward the other, stretch sealed edge outward, pinching and rolling edge to form a rope. Transfer to an oiled 17- by 12-inch heavy baking sheet. Make 3 more calzones in same manner, transferring to baking sheet. Bake calzones until golden and puffed, 12 to 15 minutes. Cool on baking sheet 5 minutes before serving. If you are going to serve later, continue cooling on rack to keep crust flake.
Dipping sauce:
Smash, peel and finely mince 3 to 5 cloves fresh garlic
Finely chop 1 TB fresh basil or subsitute 1 tsp. dried if not in season
Combine with 2 cans diced tomatoes (or four cups chopped vine-ripened tomatoes, if they are in season), 2 TB balsamic vinegar and salt and freshly ground black pepper to taste. Refrigerate overnight to let flavors meld.
Homemade dough:
Combine and allow to rest for 30 minutes to allow the whole wheat flour to absorb the liquid:
3 cups white whole wheat flour
2 teaspoons dry active yeast
1 1/4 teaspoons salt
2 tablespoons honey
2 tablespoons extra virgin olive oil
7/8 cup lukewarm water
(If you want to make the taste even milder, you can substitute 2 TB of lukewarm orange juice for water. If you are a vegan and don't use honey, you can subsitute 2 TB agave syrup or 2 TB of water and 2 TB Demerara or Sucanet.)
Knead to make a smooth, soft dough. Transfer to a large bowl, cover and let it rest at room temperature for 30 minutes. Refrigerate overnight or up to 24 hours. Remove the dough from the refrigerator. Divide into four balls, coat lightly with olive oil and let rise, covered, for another two hours.
